A young Israeli soldier, Cohen, is kidnapped by a group of Palestinian fighters who hold him as a hostage during the conflict.

Their relationship heads for a tragic ending as the Italian team, along with the goal scoring Paolo Rossi, make their march toward winning the 1982 FIFA World Cup Final.

Writing in The Washington Post, Hal Hinson called Cup Final "a powerful film, and yet one of the most unassuming great movies ever made".

Hanson comments on the relationship between the Cohen and Ziad (the Palestinian commander) as "beautifully mismatched" and that the film's central idea that the men who fight wars would "otherwise be hanging over each other's backyard fence as true friends" was stirringly presented.

Holden writes that, while the film is sometimes "ham-fisted" in its eagerness to make that point, it succeeds in its depictions of warfare, the media, and in the work of the two main actors, Moshe Ivgi.